From Real Genius to Big to Problem Child, there have been a ton of movie-to-TV series in development these days, but yesterday’s report that NBC was developing a single-cam series adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s 1989 comedy Say Anything didn’t go over well with the movie’s original writer/director. According to the original Deadline report, NBC has given a script commitment to the follow-up series set a decade after the film written by Better Off Ted’s Justin Adler and co-executive produced by Aaron Kaplan. After the news broke, Crowe and Say Anything star John Cusack were quick to address it on Twitter: “Regarding the announcement of a ‘Say Anything’ tv show,” Crowe said, “@JohnCusack, @IoneSkye1 and I have no involvement… except in trying to stop it.” Cusack’s response regarding his involvement was a little more straightforward: “Hell no !!”
According to an update by Deadline, sources close to the project say efforts were made to reach out to Crowe “but a miscommunication with his executives led to the disconnect.” 20th Century Fox is technically within their rights to use Crowe’s original film to develop a television show, but without Crowe’s blessing it’s reportedly “unlikely” that the studio will proceed with the project.
UPDATE: Deadline now confirms that after finding out that Crowe had no involvement or knowledge of the series, Kaplan and Adler have left the project and it has officially been killed by the studio.
